Summary
While some people find Labubus terrifying, millions of others find their big eyes and furry features irresistibly adorable. Why? From Labubu dolls taking over TikTok, to emoji taking over our text messages, cuteness is all over the internet. Ben and Amory talk to Joshua Paul Dale, professor at Tokyo's Chuo University and the preeminent cuteness expert about how cute has conquered all.
A previous version of this episode incorrectly stated that Despicable Me was a Disney movie. The episode has been updated to reflect that Despicable Me is a production of Illumination and Universal Pictures.
Show notes: Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World (Profile Books)
This episode was produced by Grace Tatter, edited by Meg Cramer, and co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.
Transcript
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| 0:23.9 | site wide from now through to Black Friday. Offer valid first to the 28th of November, first-time |
| 0:28.5 | shoppers only, T's and C's Apply. Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken? A podcast |
| 0:34.1 | from BU's Mayrotra Institute that explores questions like, |
| 0:38.1 | Why are executives paid so much? |
| 0:41.0 | Do they deserve it? |
| 0:42.3 | Listen wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:46.3 | WBUR Podcasts, Boston. |
| 0:53.7 | Earlier this year, the Philadelphia Eagles posted a TikTok of football player after football player being handed a small package wrapped in colorful foil. |
| 1:05.9 | You can open it. |
| 1:07.7 | A caption says that it's the first day of training camp and that the packages contain plush toys called |
| 1:13.9 | Labuboos. Most of the Eagles players look bewildered as they consider these dolls. They're small enough |
| 1:21.2 | to fit in the palms of the players' huge football playing hands. They're furry. They look kind of like rabbits. They have big, |
| 1:29.7 | pointy ears, but they also have disproportionately large heads, huge eyes, little button noses, |
| 1:37.4 | and a toothy smile represented by nine white triangles that look awfully sharp. |
| 1:44.4 | Which might be why offensive guard Landon Dickerson refuses to accept the one he is |
| 1:50.1 | handed. He walks away from the camera empty-handed, making the sign of the cross. |
| 1:56.9 | No, that's evil. |
| 2:09.6 | These strange dolls were viral long before a savvy social media manager put them into the hands of NFL players. What's Fuzzy, got 19, and has people going absolutely crazy. |
| 2:14.6 | If you want to get in on the trend, be prepared, though, to pay up |
... |
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